The Destination is In The Journey
by Prate Train
Summary: The first installment in my omni-crossover, I seek to incorporate as many characters, settings, and themes from wherever I so choose into one extended setting.
1. Chapter 1

**Episode 1**

When I woke up beneath the Shibuya underpass, I didn't know what to expect. I live in Chicago! My hoodie was gone, so were my jeans. I was instead wearing a button-up shirt (open) over a T-shirt, and cargo pants, all in forest tones. I also had a strange black skull pin clipped to my right breast pocket. In the distance, I heard screams and cries, but I couldn't see anything past the overpass.

Lying on the ground near me was a strange man. He wore a white hoodie beneath a black leather jacket, with dark jeans. I got down on one knee next to him and nudged his shoulder, but he was out cold. Suddenly I felt a vibration in my pocket, and I heard my phone's ringtone echo out under the freeway, telling me I had a text message. I reached into my pocket to pull my phone out. But the thumping noise woke the man, which was unfortunate for me, since that's really how this nightmare began.

He stood up absurdly fast, looking around with angry eyes. He had a handsome face, like that of a model, which stood in juxtaposition to the deformity of his body as his arms turned black and had claws sprout out from the fingertips. "Who are you?" He growled at me.

Suffice to say, I panicked. WOULDN'T YOU? Don't judge me. I ran as fast as I freaking could to get away from this man, but I hit an invisible wall, of all things. It knocked me back, and onto the ground. The man caught up to me in a second, and pinned me to the ground. It hurt. A lot. The man put one of his claws up to my throat.

"What's your name?" He growled again.

"Xavier," I replied nervously, trying to not wet myself, "Xavier Munroe."

"Do you know where my sister is?" He shouted it my face. This close, I could see that his eyes were almost red beneath the hoodie.

"No, I don't even know who you are!" I almost cried, "I don't even know what's going on!"

"Fine," He got off me, his hands morphing back to normal. I couldn't help but stare, but he glared at me for doing so. I'd never seen anything like him.

Funny, that might have been one of the least exciting things about that day. He tried to leave the underpass but ran into the same invisible wall that I had. He got knocked back, almost landing on top of me except that I rolled out of the way. The concrete cried and buckled as he landed, leaving a slight imprint of his body in the cement. "What the hell was that!" He cried out as he landed.

"There seems to be an invisible wall there…" I noted for him, not that he listened to me. He turned his left arm into a giant black shield…thing. Then he took a running lead and ran headfirst at the wall, only to get a more violent result. He was launched back farther this time, and I decided it would probably be best if I stayed a little bit farther away from him and that wall.

He tried this several times, transforming his limbs into more fiendish weapons and attacking the wall, but only to get the same result. One time he even covered his entire body in a black armor and ran headfirst at it, but he still bounced off.

Eventually, my phone rang again. Whoever was watching the two of us must have gotten bored, and so he sent me another text. My phone rang out and the man looked at me, waiting for me to answer it. I reached into my pocket, but all that I found were a handful of pins, with various designs on them—mostly drills—and no phone.

"Is it your phone?" I ask him. He turns his pockets inside out—they're empty too except for another handful of pins. I check another of my pockets, before I realize that my phone was behind me. With the echo under the free-way, it'd taken me a minute…that and I'm functionally retarded.

I picked the phone up. I had two new messages, from a number I'd never seen before. They read (In descending order):

"Btw, we won't open the walls if you two don't make a pact. Tootles! –The Reapers"

Oh, that's cute. And before that, the first message read:

"Reach 104. You have 120 minutes. Fail and face Erasure. –The Reapers"

I wanted to believe it was spam, who would send a message like that? But, looking around, I couldn't ignore it. It said erasure, and that sure as hell did _not_ sound like it was pleasant. I turned to the man, and suddenly we both felt a sharp pain on the palms of our hands. It was like someone took a knife to our hands. He was able to stay standing, but I fell to the floor.

I stood up again as quickly as I could, picking up the phone with myself. I looked to my hand, and saw the time ticking away, as if someone had carved a magical clock into my palm. From the surprised expression on his face, I could tell that his hand was doing it too. When I turned to him, he looked at the phone in my hand.

"What does it say?" He asked me gruffly, albeit slightly nervously. Well, he certainly does know how to cut to the point. I held my phone out to him, and he walked over and took it.

"We have to make a pact apparently, to survive." I explain to him as he reads, "What's your name? I already told you mine."

"Mercer," He says, "Alex Mercer, how do we form a pact?"

"Like I know…" I look down sadly, "I don't know anything that's going on…"

Suddenly, we both glowed in the light of a blue flame that flashed over our entire body. The walls around us were illuminated by the light, and as the light faded, I saw the wall erupt into shards of glass that fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that lightshow?" I asked him, but he was on the move already, running in the direction the wall had been. I looked at the timer on my hand; we had only 40 minutes left, we really had better get running. I tried to follow him as best I could, but let me tell you, he was fast!  
But where were we even headed? 104 could be anything, a person, building—the only thing I really could tell was that it was a destination. I never thought we'd make it, especially when we ran into a wall of the living dead. Mercer backed up from them, groaning out loud. I looked at the zombies that were closing in on us—just being in this area, the zombies were turning the very sky and ground crimson.

"Not the infected, I thought it was over after Manhattan…" he muttered to himself, shifting his arms into those claws again. I raised my hands into fists, getting ready to hide behind Alex.

"DON'T BE STUPID!" A voice called from above, and I looked up to the top of the nearest building, a music shop. Two guys stood up there—one had blonde hair and the other had silver. Both of them jumped down from the roof, running over to stand in front of us. It was the blonde one who was talking, "If you're like me, you have to use your pins to fight." He showed me two pins, one in each hand, and tossed them into the air. When he caught them, two flashes of light blinded me, and when I opened my eyes I saw him facing the infected with two key shaped swords. And by key-shaped, I mean _very_ old fashioned keys. I was a little surprised.

I stopped for a moment to take in my surroundings, the monsters and the three people I had just met. The blonde guy wore a long black coat, with a hood that was down, and everything about him was black, except for his pale skin. His 'friend' I guess wore a flashy red coat, had a giant silver sword on his back, and currently held a black and a silver gun in his hands.

"Dante!" The blonde-haired kid shouted, "Hold off the infected while I explain to these two!"

"On it!" The white-haired guy shouted, leaping over an infected person's head and raining bullets down on top of them, before hacking them to bits with his sword.

The infected were grotesque, mutated versions of what I hoped were once normal people, and not the actual dead. Mostly because the actual dead could be killed, but regardless the two new guys seemed cocky. They must have been doing this awhile, the silver-haired guy…Dante, I guess…was practically laughing as he went to town on them.

"Do you have a player pin?" The blonde-haired kid asked, "You'll need—there it is, on your chest, good—you'll need a player pin to scan the infected."

"Scan…the infected?" I asked, and the white-haired guy chuckled, so I looked to Mercer, whose stoic face offered no clues. The silver-haired guy drew his sword and spun it, hacking away two infected and knocking them into the air. Mercer joined the fight, his arms turning back into the claws, by launching himself at the mass of infected.

"You have a player pin, you're playing the game. Both of you I'm guessing," The blonde-haired kid said. I grumbled almost audibly, grinding my teeth together. I didn't understand any of this! What kind of _sick_ game was this? "There exist a thing called noise and…it's better if you just see for yourself. Touch your player pin."

"This?" I ask, placing my hand over my pin. Suddenly, the world turns blue, and I see a bunch of weird glyphs, white as snow, floating in mid-air. I gasp, and take my hand off the pin, the world returning to normal, "What the hell where those?"

"Those are the noise," The blonde-haired kid answered, batting away several of the infected with his giant keys. I am seriously going to look back at that sentence and repeat myself; _he batted away several zombies with two giant key-shaped swords_. That will _never_ sound normal to me! "You…do you have pins in your pocket?" he pauses, waiting for me to check, and there are, "alright good, those will be your attacks in the noise realm. Scan and then run right at them!"

"You're crazy, right?"

"No! If you take out the Noise, the infected," He sighs, and then shouts at me, "Just do it! Trust me if you want to live!"

"Fine, I will!" I place a hand on my player pin, turning the world blue again, and revealing the Noise again. I gulp, and freeze in place, this is crazy right? I'm having a weird acid-induced nightmare, right? I take a deep breath, summon up my courage, and run right at the giant sigil.

The first collision was probably the weirdest thing I've ever felt, like part of my life was sucked out of me. Like I half-died. Whatever it is, I suddenly was standing in a gray-scale version of the street I was on, and I was surrounded by giant frog-things. One of them jumped at me, but I stepped out of the way. Another one croaked, and a fountain of bubbles floated in my direction. I scoffed at this, but when I got hit, they knocked me onto my back.

WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING—you know what, screw this. I ran a good distance away from the frogs, keeping my front facing them. Something would happen if I killed them, but what? I pulled out the pins from my pocked and looked at them. The Blonde-haired kid has said that the pins were my attacks, so maybe one of them…I picked the one with a picture of a drill on it. A large drill.

This is where the nightmare…became fun.

I put the other pins back in my pocket, and placed the drill pin in the palm of my right hand. I raised that hand to the sky, and yelled as loudly as I could, summoning up any power I had in me. My hand flashed with green light as a spiral of energy funneled out of my player pin and around my raised arm, turning the end of my finger, and then most of my forearm into a giant rotating drill!

"Now, get out of my face!" I shouted, running at the frogs with my drill arm dragging behind me. It was heavy, like really heavy! I leapt into the air as I met the first frog, impaling it with my drill and turning it into a bunch of dust. One frog landed behind me, and I turned. As I did so, a green energy filled me and my drill became more slender, and I was able to whip it back through the frog, turning that one to dust too. I smiled at my success—I'd never had this kind of power before.

While I was distracted by myself, a frog landed on my shoulder, and kicked off me. It hurt. A lot. I fell over, and my drill turned back into green dust. Another frog landed next to me, and croaked. Remembering what happened last time, I rolled away from the two, and got back on my feet a safe way away. I raised my hand to the sky, and tried to summon the drill again, but nothing happened. I looked at my palm, and saw that the entire pin had turned gray.

"Wonderful!" I shouted, backing away from the frogs as they hopped towards me, "Crap!"

I put the drill pin into my other pocket, and pulled out my other pins. Was there another one I could use? One had the picture of two black swords crossed, except when I tried to use them, it didn't work. The other pins weren't working, except for the one with a picture of a soft drink on it. That one revitalized me, made me feel stronger.

Helped me to keep running away from the frogs. There was nothing I could do, my pins wouldn't work. I had one pin left I hadn't tried, and it didn't look too promising, having the illustration of two puppy dogs on it. Regardless, I held the pin up in front of my face, between me and the frogs, and prayed for the best. And it worked.

Chains shot from all parts of the world, cutting across and around one of the frogs, and knocking the other away. The frog got bounced around between the chains and quickly turned to dust. After it turned to dust, the chains retreated, and I fell to the ground, drained. That pin took so much of my energy, I could hardly stand!

The last frog left closed in on me. It was wounded, and perhaps that made it desperate. It hopped towards me, landing awkwardly from its wounds, and when it finally got to me its underbelly swelled up and it croaked. I closed my eyes, preparing for the worst.

Then it croaked in a figurative way. It was about to open its mouth and unleash a vapor of death-bubbles at me, when all of a sudden it turned to dust, for no reason. Five seconds passed, and I found myself on the city streets again. The sky, which had been red while the infected were thriving, was turning a faint blue again. All around me, the infected were falling to the streets, turning back into mere corpses.

The Blonde-hair kid had been right after all! I stood up and tried to keep from throwing up. I placed my hand over my mouth to keep everything down. When I pulled my hand away, I checked to make sure I hadn't gotten any bile on it, and that's when I remembered the timer.

Me and Mercer had about eight minutes left!

The Blonde-haired kid saw me, and came over to where I was standing, smiling. "Looks like you did it; I knew you guys could handle yourself!"

I didn't hear what he said, I was too preoccupied with what was going on, "Do you know where 104 is?" I asked him.

"You mean 10-4?" He corrected my pronunciation, "of course we do, it's a landmark. Why?" I showed him my hand, and he grimaced, "Oh boy…"

"What?"  
Dante answered for him, "To get to 104 from here, you'll have to go through the scramble—which is the center of the infestation. You could make it, if you had more time."

Mercer joined the circle, and growled, "Don't underestimate me." That's all he said before he sprinted off down the road. I watched him fade into the distance, and grimaced.

"What happens if we fail?" I asked.

"You get erased." Dante replied.

"What does that mean?"

"Hell if I know."

"Wonderful. Is Mercer even running the right way?" I pointed in the direction my partner had run.

"Yeah, I hope he can make it…" the Blonde-haired kid said sadly. In his eyes, I saw loss. He had once had people close to him, but they were not here anymore. I felt really bad for him, "Mercer's his name?" He asked suddenly, his eyes becoming their regular blue again.

"Yeah, he said his name was Alex Mercer." I answered, and Dante's eyes narrowed, as if that name were familiar, but he said nothing, "I'm Xavier Munroe."

"Nice to meet you, Xavier," The Blonde-haired kid said, "I'm Roxas, and this is Dante."

"Strange names…" Was all I could say, and then I looked back to where Mercer had run, "Um, I don't know if you guys care, but I'm going to follow him. My existence is kind of on the line."

"Don't worry," Roxas said, "We'll go with you. Afterwards, you guys can come with us."

"Deal." I said, and we all took off running in the direction of the scramble crossing.

They never caught up to Mercer, but he must have made it, because my timer vanished. Roxas explained how the game worked while we were running. Apparently, the game used to be played by the dead, to evaluate humanity, but something had changed. They'd talked to the Reapers a few times—the Reapers were the ones who oversaw the game. No-one knew what had changed, or why living people were playing the Reaper's game now, but the point is, they were and they had to deal with it. Just getting a player pin was a huge advantage in itself, since the two of them had discovered that they could clear away hordes of the infected by clearing out the noise in the area. Apparently the white noise supported the infected, kept them alive.

When I asked him about my drill pin turning gray, Roxas explained that pins had limited uses, before they needed to be charged. I pulled my drill pin out of my pocket and saw that it had regained about half of its color again. That might come in handy. I pulled out all of my pins, and he explained the basics of how pins work.

Pins housed a type of psychic energy called psyches, letting even people with low levels of imagination, will, and fighting spirit to activate powers that would let them alter the world around them. But use of these pins was limited by several factors. The pins do not grant you psychic powers, they enhance what you already have. So some pins I would not be able to use, and some pins I could use others might not be able to use.

Getting all of this at once made my head spin, and I handed Roxas all of the pins I hadn't been able to use, holding onto just the drink, drill, and chain pins. And my player pin of course.

"Here, try these in your next fight." Roxas handed me a handful of pins he and Dante had collected throughout Shibuya.

"Why don't we just have him try them out right now?" Dante asked, looking a little bored as we stopped. We were in what was left of the shopping district right next to the scramble. A path had been cut directly through the infected where Mercer must have run, and Dante had been cleaning up the stragglers that he missed.

I prepared to scan the area for some weaker noise I could take on, when Roxas mentioned one last thing, "By the way, you can't fight the Noise alone."

"What?" I asked, not sure what he meant, because I'd done fine last time.

"You need a partner to fight the Noise. The plane the Noise inhabits is split along the middle, along with the Noise. You and a partner need to combat them in both planes or they'll be able to just slip away. "

"So can I not fight the Noise right now? "  
"It'd probably be best to find Mercer first, but it probably won't hurt." Roxas said, pointing me at a small crowd of infected that Dante was hacking away at, "Start with them."

"Alright," I said, scanning the area for Noise. When I opened my eyes and looked around, I was caught off guard by the appearance of a different color, floating over the entrance of a nearby shop, "Roxas, what do red Noise mean?"

"Red Noise?" He asked, "Are you sure?" He scanned the world himself, and gasped, "Red noise are created from the stray emotions of _humans._ There's someone over there!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Episode 2**

Roxas scanned again to make sure, I could tell because briefly his eyes were illuminated blue. It was freaky to watch, but after he put his player pin away, he ran over to where he'd seen the noise and tried to kick the door in, but no avail. It was locked.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him, looking at the pins he'd handed to me. Roxas had pulled his two swords out using his pins, could I maybe use some of the pins I had like that? I put the pins away and pulled out my drill pin, I could probably take down the door with this. It was still a little gray though, so I couldn't use it.

Roxas was a step ahead of me anyways. "It's just a lock; it's nothing special for me," He pulled out one of his own pins and pointed it at the door. The pin flashed white, a beam shot from it, and I heard a loud click as it magically unlocked the door. Roxas pushed it open, peering into the darkness of the shop.

"What did you just do?" I asked, unsure what had just happened.

"All of my pins that I use activate my—whoa!" Roxas stepped back as a blue laser beam shot by him. A shiny-yellow robot thing ran out of the darkness and took off down the street. I looked at Roxas, who was getting up to chase after the robot. I followed him, not running as hard, not sure if we should really be doing this. There were infected everywhere, this might be a bad idea.

If he wanted the robot to stop, I could help him…Should I? It would hurt really badly, and I still didn't know anything at all about the pins. Maybe I couldn't even use it again. Either way, it was worth a shot. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pin with the anarchy "A" drawn in chains, and I pointed it at the robot.

I felt suddenly drained, like my life had been rapidly sucked out of me, and a web of chains shot from the buildings to form a wall in front of the golden robot, who stopped, and turned around. I fell to the ground, coughing, and Roxas stopped and turned around to look at me.

"Are you okay?" He asked, but then we both heard a loud whine, and looked back to the robot. Roxas pulled two pins out of his black coat and in a second he was holding his two key-sword-things again. One blinding flash of light later and in the robot's place stood a very oddly dressed blonde girl with upturned hair—her hair looked like it'd been sucked up by a turbine or something. She had a slight frown on her face and seemed terrified.

"Please," she said, "Don't kill me. Don't hurt me."

"We're not trying to!" Roxas shouted at her, and I stood up, putting my anarchy pin into the same pocked that had the drill pin and my cell phone, "Are you both alright?" I nodded, and so did the girl.

"I'm fine, I just…I'm scared." She said, and I felt like laughing. That was an understatement. In a hellish world like this? I was surprised I hadn't wet my pants already. Then I looked down to make sure I actually hadn't, because my partner was freaking terrifying. I hadn't, which was impressive, and let me have a moment to sigh relief, before I looked back to what was going on.

Roxas was talking into a walkie-talkie, and I heard Dante's voice on the other line.

"We need to call in for a RTB." Roxas said, and I heard Dante groan, "We can't drag these two around indefinitely, and we're too close to the scramble crossing for safety. Got it? Dante?"

"I hear you, just give me a minute, there's a pack of…well," I heard Dante reply, and then when he stopped talking his voice was replaced by garbled roaring and the sound of his microphone being jostled around. Thirty seconds went by without a word, and Roxas' face became more nervous.

"Should we go help him?" I asked, sticking my hand into my pocket with the pins.

"Dante can take care of himself," Roxas explains, a little white in the face, "He probably just dropped the communicator."

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Dante picked up on the other end and said, "Call in an RTB; I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Got it." Roxas said, and changed the frequency just as I heard Dante start to say Jack-something. I didn't' quite catch it, but he sounded excited. Roxas called another channel, and the voice of a gruff older woman answered him, "We're calling for an RTB, coordinates are—!"

I didn't hear the rest of what he said as Dante came running towards us, followed by a large crowd of enormous infected. These things were huge, and although I was scared, I feared a fight might soon ensue. Not with Dante around though. He drew his two pistols and began glowing!

He turned around, leapt into the air, and rained down a mass of glowing bullets onto the large infected. He landed on the other side, already having swapped his guns for his sword, and went to town on the closest infected in range.

"Hunters! I knew we were too close!" Roxas said, handing me the walkie-talkie and lighting off a flare, "They're sending an air-carrier to pick us up, so make sure that this flare does not go out. Protect this girl, and if they radio us anything, let us know!" With that, he took off running toward the crowd of Hunters that were surrounding Dante. His two pins became the key-swords again, and he did like a triple-flip to land next to Dante in the middle of their hellish mosh pit.

I clipped the walkie-talkie to my belt, and stood in front of the girl, so that I was between her and the infected. I set the flare on the ground, and pulled my drill pin out of my pocket. I knew I might die here, but oh well; at least I'd go down fighting.

"What's your name?" I asked her, putting my fists up.

"Ilana," She said, "Ilana Lunis," is all she said, nervously looking at the hunters.

One of the Hunters strayed from the group, and that's when I let my anger take hold of me. I gripped the drill pin tightly, why the hell was I here? I didn't even understand what was going on, I was NOT about to die! I wouldn't let that happen, these things would not get me!

My hand holding the pin turned into a large drill, and I rocketed forward, propelled by the force of my anger, piercing the Hunter and leaving a large hole in him. The creature fell over, falling to the ground, and I turned my drill into the crowd as a whole. Dante and Roxas were nowhere to be seen, and I would have been confused if I hadn't been running on anger. I leapt up into the air and my drill turned slender again; I slashed through a few of the Hunters as if using a whip, leaving a gash across their body and causing a splash of blood.

I landed with the drill back to its standard form, with a Hunter looming over me. This close, I got a good look at them. They were huge, like a giant gorilla, with sunken eyes, and well, going back to the gorilla description, they looked like that only shaved. I raised my drill to block the attack, but it knocked me back, into the middle of the group. I looked around, surrounded by the infernal things, my drill having turned back into a pin. I reached for the pins Roxas had given me, hoping one of them would be able to help me. One of them did, but not in the way I'd hoped.

When I used it, a cloud of flechettes flew out from the pin, striking all the hunters around me, but ultimately just making them angry. I still had the anarchy pin, but it was rebooting, so I was effectively screwed. Suddenly, a blue beam of energy shot through the hunters, piercing one of them. The pack turned their attention to Ilana.

But then Dante and Roxas materialized next to me, cocky smiles on both of their faces.

"This was a pretty town," Roxas begins,

"You're tainting the view." Dante finishes.

They put their weapons away, and the Hunters all fell over, collapsing onto the street, the red color of the neighborhood fading once again. I picked up my pins off the ground and stood up, trying to keep from crying. If they hadn't finished off the Noise when they did, I'd be dead, or worse.

Infected.

A loud roaring was heard, and we all looked up to see a giant hovercraft sort-of-thing landing. It was basically a floating platform, a railing around the edge to keep the occupants from falling off, and a pilot's seat attached to the front. Dante and Roxas escorted Ilana onto the platform. I made to follow but stopped.

I felt a cold breeze from behind me, and I turned around to see a lanky kid dressed in a white button up, with messy silver hair. He smiled at me. He smiled, and I felt instantly disturbed.

"Hello." He said to me.

"Hello," I replied to him, "Were you waiting for someone?"

"No, well not really waiting anyways," He says, "What are you doing for the rest of the day, Xavier?"

"What?" I stopped, this was really freaky.

"What?"

"You just used my name, how did you know my name?"

"We all know your name. I don't mean to sound rude, but you're rather ignorant of your own position," on ignorant, he casually brushed his hair to the side.

"Oh really," I asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Kaworu Nagisa," he says, walking closer to me. I see he has red eyes at this point, and his smile grows, "I hope you won't make me _regret_ what I've done."

I blink, and he's gone. Roxas is calling to me, asking me to get on the air-carrier. I numbly comply, confused at what just happened. Did I just have a dream, or Kaworu…I didn't know. I got on the air-carrier, and the pilot took us up, on to the next leg of my journey.

The Air Carrier flew us to a paramilitary outpost on the edge of town. Dante filled me in on the details during the flight. Apparently, a deadly virus had been unleashed in Manhattan, a part of New York. A military group called Black Watch had covered it up, along with a prior incident in Hope, Idaho. They'd nuked them in Hope, and had attempted to in Manhattan, except that my partner had stopped the second bomb from destroying the city somehow.

The virus overran the city then, and Black Watch sent part of it to their lab in Tokyo for analysis. If you can see the flaw in that plan, then congratulations! You're smarter than Black Watch. When the virus exploded, the Mikado Corporation took over Black Watch, buying it out, and taking over the functions. They were the guys who were keeping down the virus in the myriad of places it had broken out. People who had demonstrated resilience to the virus, or had some other means of preventing their corruption—such as mine and Roxas' player pins—were sought out by Mikado, and employed to attempt to clear out the infected areas.

"We've had more success here, than in other areas, due mostly to these," Roxas says, pointing to my player pin, "You saw it yourself, when the noise is eliminated, the infected go down too. We aren't exactly sure what the Noise are, but it works for us."

"How come you and Dante didn't have a timer?" I asked, looking at my hand and remembering the sting. You have no idea how badly that had hurt!

"Oh, that," Roxas chuckles, "We finished our game, and kept the pins. Seven days, we got a mission each day, and when we completed it, the timer vanished."

"Huh, that's strange," I said, becoming silent. This was a lot to take in over the course of a few hours. I needed a nap, badly.

The air-carrier took us to the edge of the country, to a large industrial building. From the edge of the railings, I could see the coastline stretched below us, and the destruction to Tokyo behind us. From here, parts of the city were normally colored in shades of gray, but also I could see larges masses colored by and invading red. That was where the infection was. I looked down sadly, this really sucked.

We landed atop the Mikado Corporation building, and had to go down several flights of stairs. I had no idea where we were going, I was just following Dante and Roxas. They eventually turned onto one of the floors, and down a generic office hallway; potted plants, carpeted floor, all that jazz. Roxas knocked on the door of the office of "Julius Steel" The door opened, Roxas and Dante entered, and the former saluted, while Dante shrugged indifference. Steel saluted behind a desk, and then returned to what he was doing, which was apparently typing on a computer. I snickered because I imagined that he was on something like Facebook, or G+, or looking at Ponies or something.

That got his attention. He looked up and yammered at me for a full minute about disrespecting your authorities. I backed down, and hid behind Ilana. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he lost his cool demeanor.

"You!" he cried, "I thought I was done with you when I resigned and took this position! What are you doing here? Dante, Ruck-sack! One of you two escort her to the prison compound!"

"You don't really mean to imprison me, do you?" Ilana exclaimed in surprise. Dante shrugged, and Roxas looked at me.

"If it doesn't involve killing, "Dante left, "Then I'm off the clock."

Roxas shrugged and followed his partner. I shrugged and followed them, and Ilana followed me, leaving Julius Steel to yell about treason, and treachery in his office, about having all of our heads. I didn't know what to make of him, but he seemed thick-headed.

"What's up with him?" I asked them, and Dante laughed.

"That guy thinks he's so high-and-mighty."

Roxas sighed, and actually answered me, "He used to be a General in the American military. He dealt with several alien threats, but ultimately resigned. Black Watch recruited him after he resigned, and he stayed on during the merger. He's just the guy we report to when we return from a mission, he's nothing special."

"Wow, he went from being a General to a glorified receptionist, that really had to suck," I remarked, and turned around to see if Ilana was still following us. She was and she looked sad,

"Did you hear anything about a Titan?" She asked Roxas, who shook his head.

"No, I didn't, why?" He replied.

"No reason," She said, looking down and holding her other arm. Dante, in the lead of all of us, stopped and turned around. Roxas and me immediately crashed, while Ilana was far enough behind to actually stop.

"There something you wanna tell us?" He asked her, crossing his arms.

"Well, me and," she said, but the building was suddenly rocked by an explosion. We all fell to the ground; I put an arm out to break Ilana's fall. Dante and Roxas both rolled back to their feet and the lights flickered on and off, before going out.

"An attack?" Roxas shouted, "Did they get the generators?"

"Sounds like fun!" Dante shouted, trying to decide which way to run, before stopping, "Roxas, where's the generator room?"

"Follow me," Roxas said, "keep her safe!" He shouted back to me as him and Dante ran to the generator and theoretically our aggressors.  
I JUST WANT A NAP, IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR?

I sighed and helped Ilana to her feet, "Come with me," I said. She nodded, and I tried to figure out where the nearest fire escape was, or at least where the staircase we'd entered through was. If there was another attack, I didn't want to be this high off of the ground.

Essentially we stumbled around the halls for a while to no avail, but we did bump into a few people running around in a panic. I would have asked them where to go, but they didn't stick around enough for me to get a word in. Then an alarm rang out, and a calm male voice issued an evacuation procedure.

"You know where you're going, right?" Ilana asked me, and I almost cried.

"I know just about as much as you," I replied sadly. I stepped forward for the last time that day, and the ground exploded under me. A giant violet robot was wedged in the hallway somehow, a gaping hole below it. Dust and debris floated in the air, and were illuminated by the light as the robot transformed into a young man with long black hair.

"Ilana, we're here for you!" He shouted, running at me. I pulled out my Anarchy pin and held it at him, but nothing happened. His fist met the side of my face, and he kicked me so hard I blacked out.

Probably lost a tooth or two, too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Episode 3**

I finally got that nap of mine. I was out cold for hours upon hours, before an intern found me. He took me to their equivalent of a nurse's office, and must've bandaged my head and the various injuries I'd accumulated since I woke up below the Miyashita Park underpass. I got a break from my nightmare—it'd be even worse when I headed back to Shibuya.

I woke in an immaculately clean room, on a solidly padded bed, wearing a jade-colored gown with my player pin clipped to the collar. I couldn't find my clothes, so I just sat in my bed and looked around. It wasn't anything too special, just a room for injured people with all of the junk that goes with it. Standard signs about washing your hands and not sharing needles, a sink, and several locked cabinets.

A guy dressed in all black, with short blonde hair was in the bed next to me. Not knowing where I was, I sort of just sat there. I mean, what would you have done in this situation? Left, gotten lost in the complex? So I just sort of waited until the man in black woke up. He looked at me with blue eyes, moving his head to-and-fro.

He cried, "Who are you? Are we enemies?"

"I'm Xavier," I replied, tired of telling people my name, "Who are you?"

"No-one of consequence." He replies, sitting up, and that's when I get a glance at what put him in the infirmary. Across his left shoulder stretched a deep gash, cut through the fabric, obviously from the infected. You could _see_ his shoulder beneath the wound. I almost hurled into the sink, but tried to compose myself, only making a single remark.

"That looks painful," I grimace, why did I just point that out to him?

"Life is pain," he retorts sharply, "anyone who tells you any different is trying to sell you something. But, since I am awake and able to move, it seems I must be off. A good day to you."

He opened the door and left, and I still just waited. He must have been another of the agents Roxas had mentioned to me. People who were naturally immune to whatever it was that had gotten the people of Shibuya. I took a moment to check my mouth, to make sure all of my teeth were there.

The door opens, and the man in black is shoved back into the room by a disgruntled-looking doctor, "I don't really care who you are, you're bleeding from your shoulder and while you might be immune, other people are not. Sit." He pushes the other man back onto the bed and picks up a clipboard from the side of the sink.

The men in black turns to me, "Since I forgot to ask you earlier, you haven't by chance run into a woman named 'Buttercup' in the infected zone, have you?" I shook my head and the man in black sighed, resigning himself to his fate.

I realize the doctor is trying to get my attention when he snaps his fingers, "okay princess, you're fine," he says, "get out." There's a knock at the door, and I look up nervously. What _now_?

Roxas opens the door and checks inside, sees me and smiles, "Oh there you are, come on. We're getting dispatched again." I follow him, stumbling a little from being immobile for so long, but I mostly stay on my feet with no difficulty.

Dear Diary: today's gonna be fan-fucking-tastic.

We find Dante in the equivalent mess hall, quietly eating a strawberry sundae—of all things. Roxas says the same thing, and he nods. He gets up and takes the Sunday with him, even as the cooking staff protests. They leave the mess hall, go to the nearest elevator, and go up fourteen stories. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how big this building is, but I suppose it's good that they have it, especially with the infected running around.

They knock on a worn wooden door, then open. Dante's still got his strawberry sundae, and Roxas salutes again. Behind a desk this time is a white-haired old man with red eyes. He stands up and extends a hand towards me in greeting. I shake the man's hand and he prepares to introduce himself. Dante and Roxas slouch into two chairs in front of the desk, one waiting and the other still eating their sundae.  
"People know me by many names, The White Wizard, the Count, Ansem the Wise, the list goes on," his voice was very striking, it practically boomed in the small office, "but here they refer to me as Chief Director of Operations Lee. I serve directly under Mr. Mikado, by my own choice."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I reply to him, studying his face, and then the floor, blushing almost. I'm still wearing my hospital gown.

"Please," he gestures to an unoccupied chair, "have a seat. I have been informed that you are new here, but I could have seen that for myself. I have also been informed that you are a player who left your partner behind."

"He seemed," I protested, but was cut off.

"Nevertheless! For a pair to be at full power, they need teamwork. Look at these two right here," he waves his hand towards Dante and Roxas, "they have teamwork down, to the point where they can help us, and truly be a force for our cause!"

This catches me off guard, and kind of pisses me off, "Okay, hold on. What the hell makes you guys think I want to help you guys? I don't even know what's going on!"

Director Lee stands up, and places his hands gently on the desk, "Working as an agent for Hypnos, you will receive room and board. You will also have access to our facilities, which should be more than accommodating for you. Should the epidemic be permanently remedied, we will even provide you a flight home, and you'll be able to go on with your life." It's a nice offer; I could put my pins to good use, and help out a lot of people. "Does that sound—?" There's a knock at the door, and a blonde man wearing dark glasses enters, "What is it, Yamaki?"

"I finished my work on Juggernaut," the blonde haired man replies, tossing a sealed manila envelope onto the Chief Director's desk. Director Lee picks up the file and examines it, then nods and places it in his desk.

"Very good, I'll look over it shortly." He declares, once more taking a seat in the large chair behind his desk. Yamaki frowns slightly, and flicks a silver lighter that he'd been carrying.

"Sir, I would hope that you would look over that file soon. It might prove vital to ending this epidemic," he sourly looked at Dante and Roxas, who ignored him.

"I will in my own terms," Director Lee declared, "You are dismissed, Yamaki."

The blonde hair man saluted, muttered something, and left. Director Lee turned his attention back to me, but before he could say anything, Dante _finally_ finished his sundae, and loudly placed the cup it'd been on the Chief Director's desk.

"Okay, so we head back in, we find the guy's partner, and we get back here, got it." Dante says, smirking and leaning back in his chair he looks at me, "add in a quick change of clothes too, and I think we're good to go, right Roxas?"

"Yeah, I think we can do it," Roxas smiles, and the Director sighs, placing his hand on his forehead so that all I can see of his face is hair.

"Clearance granted. I'll arrange for an air-carrier to transport you three back to Shibuya at 0900 hours. Make sure you are ready by then," he looked explicitly at me with the last phrase, "you three are dismissed."

The air-carrier's waiting on the roof for us. Dante hops on without a pause, but me and Roxas stop to check our pins, flares, and communicators. I'm wearing the shirt I woke up in and a spare pair of gray cargo pants Mikado Corporation had, with my player pin clipped to the collar again. They couldn't find where they'd placed the rest of my clothes, so I had to make do with what they'd held onto. Roxas had managed to find most of my pins, but the knives and soda ones weren't there, along with a few others I hadn't gotten the chance to use yet.

This wasn't so great a loss, since they wouldn't save my life or anything. Yeah, you know. My whining aside, I had another problem going back into Shibuya. One thing they hadn't been able to find with my stuff was my cell phone, so when I felt a strong burning feeling in my hand, I knew I was in some deep trouble.

Roxas and Dante tried to keep me calm, but I was flipping out. None of us knew what erasure meant, but the pain in my hand was pretty severe, so we didn't think they were joking. Maybe erasure was some kind of…you know what? I really don't want to think about it.

Since our mission was to find my partner, we landed the air-carrier in the vicinity of 104, since we figured that he must have made it there yesterday. We let the air-carrier fly away, and I wondered if the pilot felt guilty—like he was leaving us to die? We were in practically the heart of the infestation. South from where we were I could see that all of the buildings had been covered in red growths, and like the other infected areas the sky was red here too.

We landed in a crowd of infected, Dante and Roxas had their weapons drawn and I had my pins ready. The infected surrounded us, like being in the center of a mob. The other two didn't hesitate, launching themselves into the crowd with their weapons flashing red. I held back, activating my drill pin and thanking whatever god there might be we weren't surrounded by Hunters this time.

We cut a path through the infected, working in the direction of the 104 building. When Roxas saw that I was able to hold my own this time, he pulled out his player pin and scanned, vanishing with his partner as they collided with the white Noise. They left me alone while they went to deal with the noise.

For the first time since I woke up under the freeway, I was truly on my own. No unconscious bleeding men or women-robot-things, or anything. Just me, and the crowd of infected that were shambling around, closing in if they noticed me. My drill pin ran out of juice, so I put it back into my pocket, and pulled out my anarchy pin, just in case. It made me really tired, but a wall between me and them would be very handy. I had a few other pins, but none of them responded except for the soda pin and a solid red pin that kept sending off sparks whenever I pulled it out. Hmm, that might be something to try.

I held the anarchy and red pins in each hand, wondering what kind of psyche the red pin would let me do. Maybe it was some kind of huge super-lightning attack! The kind of power that could level city blocks, I should probably test it out now, to see what it can do!

I point the red pin at the nearest infected, and call for its power. My hand glows red, and I didn't notice it at first, but my energy was being drained slightly. It was sort of a bummer, and I let my hand fall to my side. As I did so, a wave of fire shot out, incinerating the few infected standing in front of me.

My jaw dropped, and I nearly dropped the red pin in surprise. That _hadn't_ been what I had in mind….but it was nice though! Roxas and Dante pop back into view, and the nearby infected start falling over. I walk over to them, and Dante looks down at the still-burning infected corpse and whistles.

"That's impressive," He notes, albeit sarcastically, putting his sword back onto his back. Roxas puts his pins back into his coat and looks at the burning infected, shuddering a little for whatever reason. Dante stretches, and looks to the scramble crossing, "So where is this guy anyways? Let's find him and get out of here."

"We would if we knew where he was," Roxas shrugs, looking around the area we're at, "What was his name again?"

"Alex Mercer." I say, trying to remember what he looked like in the first place. Details are fuzzy, but I think he was wearing a hoodie over a collared shirt or something. I remember his eyes though, I wouldn't be able to forget his eyes, or how his body was able to shift at will. As for how I would find him, or how…wonderful! I open my palm and look at my timer; I just remembered I have the impossible mission to do.

"Where do you think he'd go, after he got here?"

"I don't know, I don't know anything," I say sadly, looking at my timer. Dammit, why couldn't people just tell me what was what? A little exposition isn't that bad, as long as I'm not blindfolded in the dark! Because that's what this mission feels like! And then I realize that I just might know someone who can tell me what the hell's going on,

"So, that means that we need to look around for signs that he's been here, he must have left some mark!" Roxas deduces, but I'm going in a completely different direction.

"Kaworu!" I shout, "Kaworu! Kaworu Nagisa! I need help!"

"Who? Who is—?" Dante asks me, freezing mid-sentence.

"You should know that I can't directly interfere with the game, or at least I'm not supposed to," Kaworu says behind me. I turn around to see him, with a stricken look on his face, "But with the state of the city, I don't think anyone will really care if I do. What do you need?"

"I have a mission for today, but my phone was taken from me so I don't know what it is. And I can't find my partner either." I explain, and he chuckles a little, brushing his white hair out of his eyes.

"I'll help you out," he says, "But on the condition that you have to _earn it._"

"What do you want me to do?"  
Kaworu sighs, and looks at me, "Pain is something man must endure. To earn my empathy for you, I'll need to understand your pain. I'll need you to understand your pain."

"What are you talking about?" I ask him.

"Do you remember your home?" Come to think of it, no, I really don't. I remember that I have a home, and that it's in Chicago, but, that's all that I do remember. When I think back before waking up yesterday, I can't get any details, just vague points. Kaworu waves his hand to the side, and his red eyes glow brighter. "Touch the world; scan it with your pin. Survive the noise, and begin the fight within!" He cries, "survive, drive them away, and I'll bring your partner to you to finish the job!"

I don't hesitate then, touching the pin on my collar. The world changes from bright red to a dark blue, and briefly I can look into Kaworu's mind. It was like staring into the sun, I felt my head ache with the glance before he vanishes. In his place is a single blue Noise—it takes me a minute to distinguish them from the world with their color blending in. I wait for my head to settle, and then I reach out to touch the noise.

I'm transported to a normal city street, but I'm not alone. Across the street from me is a small fox, and besides that we're alone. This must be the noise I have to beat, and if that's the case this'll be a piece of cake! I mean, it might be just a trick, but could it really be that bad? I check my pins for a second, to see which ones need to boot still. Anarchy and drill are ready, soda and red are still rebooting, and the knives one is gone. I check the timer on my hand, time's really running out!

I'll have to make this quick! I activate my drill pin, and rush the fox with it, but when I get there, the fox is gone. I look around but I don't see it, and suddenly a shadow falls over me. I look up, and step out of the way as a giant Moai crashes to the ground where I was. When it hits, it turns back into the fox, and vanishes again. It's both a teleporter and a shape-shifter! How is this fair?

I look around for the fox, keeping an eye above me for the Moai again. It attacks me from behind, taking my shape and attempting to use my drill against me. I step out of the way, whipping it with my drill. It falls forward, knocked back into its true form, and that's when I get smart. I pull the anarchy pin out of my pocket and direct the chains into the fox, juggling it in place. I raise my drill over my head, pumping what's left of my spirit into this attack. My drill expands, and by its power I propel myself forward, directing myself at the fox.

My drill collides with the fox, knocking the Noise backwards, and causing it to revert into its sigil form again, as it slips away. I stand there alone. The sun shines, but nothing is around. My drill turns back to green dust, as do the chains, and I put my pins all back into my pockets.

"What do I do now, Kaworu?" Is this part of what he wanted me to do? Leaving me by myself, so I'll be alone with my thoughts? I sit down against the 104 building and pull my knees up against my chest. Why is all of this happening? Who am I? And why do I suddenly feel like I want to cry?

I was left alone with those kinds of thoughts, and others I don't want to speak of, for a little while, before my timer vanished and I was returned to the real world. Kaworu was standing where the boss-fox had been, and he clapped.

"Well done, this is a good start," he applauded my efforts, "we'll talk more later. Your partner is that way, in the scramble crossing." He said, pointing, and vanishing again.

"—Kaworu?" Dante finished his question as Kaworu left. He stopped talking and looked around, "Oh, so you're over there now. Shut up," he says to Roxas before the latter can say anything.

"Don't worry about it," I say, standing up and shaking my head to clear away the thoughts that are holding me back, "I know where Mercer is now."

"That's good, where's he at?" Roxas asks me, folding his arms, knowing this wasn't going to be good. I frowned, and paused to bat away another thought before answering them.

"He's in the scramble crossing," I say, awkwardly putting my hands in my pockets. I really had no idea how they would react to that. But I might have figured—Roxas nervously and Dante sarcastically.

"Oh really? And you know this because?" Dante asked me, putting a hand under his chin and smiling sourly at me, "I really like the idea of marching directly into the heart of the infestation though."

I hold up my now clear hand, "We figured out the mission for the day. We had to kill a noise, and I guess he was just close enough to join me in the fight."

"Scramble it is then," Roxas said, "we'll call an air-carrier, run in, grab him, and head back."

Together we headed directly into the core. None of us knew what awaited us, and so they were almost as nervous as me. Dante seemed as cocky as ever though, like he'd done this kind of junk before. Roxas pulled his hood up, and I kept the drill pin in my hand.

Kaworu's words echoed in my ears though. He was right, I didn't remember my home. And I wasn't sure why I didn't. He said, he said that he needed me to understand my own pain. Just what exactly did he mean by that?


	4. Chapter 4

**Episode 4**

**** Mercer was in the Scramble Crossing, where the most vicious and powerful infected were, the heart of the infestation. It was weird though, when we passed from the 104 area to the scramble crossing, something strange happened. The air shifted, like we weren't on earth anymore. This made me uneasy, but I shrugged that off, focusing on the objective.

"This is my kind of thing!" Dante shouted, blasting away several infected with a shotgun he'd seemingly procured from thin air, "I'm absolutely _crazy_ about this!" He grinned and sidestepped an overhead slam from a hunter. Roxas launched himself at the hunter, knocking it into the air and juggling it with his key blade things before Dante blew it to pieces with his shotgun. Another Hunter approached Dante, but I slashed at it with my drill, stunning it long enough for them to destroy it.

"We're taking too long!" I shouted, looking around, but I couldn't see anything through a slowly encroaching fog. Roxas rolled out of the way of another hunter and stood up next to me.

"I agree, but there's not much we can do. I'm not sure how far we could get. These things are fast…." He says, blocking an attack with his swords, grunts, and pushes his aggressor away, "Besides, where would we run to? We don't know where he's at."

"Do you think these things can climb?" I asked, looking up to the top of a nearby building. Maybe, if we could somehow get up there, we could use it to scout out Mercer. Even through this fog, he'd be easy enough to see, right? Note: That's what I thought at the time, I'm not really that stupid. You try thinking straight while surrounded by Zombies, I dare you.

"They can, and they're probably faster than all of us," Roxas says, "but we could try to run. Just watch your back, and clip any of them that you can."

We took off running into the fog, heading deeper into the infected zone. We could all dish out decent damage, especially Dante, but we couldn't handle what we were about to deal with. Things were about to get a _lot_ worse.

We took off running through the mist. We plunged deeper, fighting until I swear we were at the core, or close by. When we got yay-far in, the ground erupted! Monstrous tendrils shot up, grabbing the infected, and ingesting them. While we thought they were on our side, one of them tried to grab Roxas, but was stopped by a hail of bullets from Dante, and a lash by my drill.

They were red in color, and had what looked like three ivory claws at the end. Veins pulsed and throbbed throughout their whole body, and they moved with jerky motions, constantly twitching. In between the three claws was a single red dot, a mouth to ingest its prey.

"These feel familiar for some reason," Roxas said, pulling out his key pins and activating them.

They surrounded us, and they were more powerful than even the Hunters. Every time we took one down, another one shot up. They must have been coming from somewhere, but we had no idea. Dante took off running, vanishing from our sight, leaving me and Roxas back to back. That's when I panicked. My drill wouldn't be able to hold these things off, and I'm not sure how well Roxas' sword key things would do.

"We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!" I shouted, shaking and dropping to the ground. One of the tendrils launched at me, but only wound up impaling itself on my drill, which I pulled up just in time. Roxas turned around and hurled his key blade at the retreating tendril, sliding right through it. The tendril fell to the ground quivering, and with a twitch of the wrist Roxas called his key back to his hand.  
"_Now is NOT the time to panic!_" He shouted at me, "stand up! Do something!"

I pulled out my anarchy pin in desperation and created a cage of chains around me and Roxas. I couldn't handle this, this fear and this pressure. It was too far beyond me. Roxas and Dante might have been able to, but they weren't me.

"I can't keep going like this!" I shouted, and Roxas groaned.

"Why do I have to give," Roxas starts, and then groans as a tendril attacks him, "I'm tired of this! I'm going to end you!" He spins his key blades, and they vanished as he leapt into the air. He hovered then, a glowing light emanating from him illuminated 13 luminous sigils floating in midair. Roxas launched a stream of glowing bubbles at the tendrils, and I didn't see the rest of the attack, because I closed my eyes.

I'd felt something. It was weird, like a heartbeat deep in my soul; I felt that someone important was close by. I could feel their heartbeat, that's what it was, and I knew that my partner was near! I opened my eyes, and saw Roxas land, as the tendrils around us collapsed to the ground. He turned to me and smiles,

"Piece of cake," he says, before getting bowled over by a flying Dante. The two tumble for a moment and then land in a heap. I look to the mist, wondering what had just happened. Dante and Roxas are back on their feet, and a tall blonde man in a black coat steps out of the mist, with a sour look on his face. I can't tell what color his eyes are behind his black sunglasses, but I'll just go ahead and assume red. Everyone who lives in this wretched town has red eyes.

"A demon can't face the power of a god," he said calmly, adjusting the sunglasses on his face.

"You? A god? Don't make me laugh!" Dante shouts, pulling out his handguns and firing at the sunglasses man, who vanishes in a black mist. He appears behind Dante, hitting the devil hunter several times from behind, and then knocking him over with a kick. Roxas pulls out a pin I hadn't seen before and launched a barrage of light at this new guy, but his opponent teleported to dodge every attack.

I felt a twinge in my soul again, and a black colored tendril flew at him from above. He stepped to the side, grabbing the tendril, and pulling, yanking my partner into the fray. Actually, change that to slamming my partner into the ground in the middle of this massacre.

And then using his tendril arm to swing him around, and toss him into Dante, before disarming Roxas bare-handed. Who the _hell_ was this guy? He knocked Roxas aside, and teleported in front of me, noting how I was the only one who hadn't attacked him yet. Terrified out of my life, I used my anarchy pin again. Chains shot from nearby buildings, and from the ground, catching the sunglasses man off guard. He got hit by several of the chains, and was able to teleport away.

"You worm! You're all nothing to me!" He shouted angrily, as he looked around at all of us. I looked around at all of us. Dante was keeping back, trying to figure out how to get a hit in, Roxas was lying on his back. His chest was moving, so I knew he was still alive. My partner was on the ground too, but now he was moving away from Dante, so that the three of us formed a triangle around the black-coat man.

Oh yeah, there was me too. Terrified, pants-wetter, with no training for this kind of thing. Yep.

"Wesker, I'm going to end you!" My partner growled, morphing his right arm into a sharp blade. He charged at Wesker and slashed with his blade-arm. Wesker, instead of teleporting away, slides to the side, narrowly dodging the blade. Dante leaps forward then, and pierces Wesker with his sword.

The sunglass wearing man stops in his tracks, and looks down. The sword is sticking out of his chest. Dante tries to pull it out, but can't.

"This is…" Wesker says sadly, but then his face contorts, "inconvenient!"

He pushes the sword back out through his chest, yanks it out of Dante's hands, and impales him with it. Dante gasps, and falls over, and I'm shocked. I go into a brief daze, watching lazily as Wesker blocks a flurry of punches and attacks from Mercer. What can I—?

"Xavier! He has a white Noise!" Roxas shouts at me weakly, and I realize where he's going with this, "You can scan him!"

I do scan him, and the giant white Noise sigil appears over his head. It's far more massive than any of the other ones I've seen so far, but I can't let that scare me. Not if I can help the other two.

"Ready, Mercer?" I asked, preparing to grab the Noise, and he just gave me a brief look, before getting whopped by Wesker. I took that look as a yes, and our fight began. The red-tinted city streets vanished, being replaced by the now-familiar gray scale city. But this isn't like the other fights. This isn't a fight we were meant to win.

Before me stood a towering behemoth. A giant bat-like monster, lanky in gait, with bulbous black eyes. It roared at me, and lowered a foot to step on me, but I took a page from Roxas' book and rolled out of the way. It shook, screaming in anger, and small scuttling creatures fell from its back. These would have to be first, there was no way I could take down this tower by myself. I'd have to trust in Mercer, in the other zone.

I pulled out my Red pin—it was time to give this baby another go! I activated its psych, and my hand turned red. I threw a punch at the nearest scuttling critter, and my red hand burned a path through its body. I followed this up with a spin, releasing the red power as a wave of flame at the Scuttles. They caught fire, and fell back, replaced by another wave. My red took care of these, but I had to stop using it, because it was starting to really drain my strength. I switched to my drill pin, surprised that I wasn't as panicked, when I had been about to cry earlier. I was either getting used to this kind of stuff, or being alone made me more determined. A lot of the little ones were taken out by Mercer, I could tell because they would suddenly turn to dust without me touching them.

In any case, my drill cut through the rest of the Scuttles with relative ease, allowing me to turn my attention to the big guy. I lashed at it with my drill, turning my drill arm into a towering spiral that lashed across the creatures body, but all that did(short of a red line drawn across its chest) was make it angry at me. It stepped towards me, sacs of fluid behind its eyes expanding with anger. I stepped back more, reaching into my pocket for the anarchy pin and praying that it still had some juice left. But instead the creature vanished in a flash of bright light. I grinned, figuring that Mercer had put the hurt on it in his zone, but no.

The world reverted to its red devastated look, only the creature was there this time. Wesker was dodging Dante's attacks, and laughing all the while. It'd been a trap, hadn't it! I had no idea how this was going on, but I knew that we, and whatever was left of the city, was in trouble.

"Thank you for your assistance!" Wesker shouted, yanking Dante closer by the blade of his sword and knocking him out with the palm of his hand, "While a creature of the virus, I have no Noise above me. I am my own person, the Noise are mine to control!" Wesker laughed then, raising his hands to the sky.

"You talk too much." Bullets flew from behind me, striking Wesker in the chest and face, causing him to spin and fall. He lifted himself up with one arm and glared at us, his glasses cracked open from the bullets to reveal a single red eye, and then he chuckled.

"Chris, it truly appears that our fates are intertwined…." He said as he stood up, removing his glasses and tossing them aside. Bullets cascaded from above, but Wesker teleported this time, before vanishing from our sight. He shouted at us from atop a nearby roof, laughing as he did, "I'm sorry, but there's no time for games. Farewell!" Before vanishing again, for the last time.

Our unseen allies joined us—a bulky man with short black hair, and a lanky man with long blonde hair falling into his eyes. The bulky man wore combat fatigues, and the thinner one wore a black leather jacket and what looked like blue jeans. Both of them were armed with several guns, and they were currently scanning the skyline for Wesker, even as the giant monster marched away.

"Leon!" Roxas shouted, "Glad you guys made it!"

"Glad we were in time," Leon replies, "Let's get the four of you out of here quick."  
"I can still fight." Mercer says shortly, crossing his arms, and I believe him. Chris shakes his head.

"You can't keep going while your teams down like that," Chris berates him, "I'm calling an air-carrier, you guys are going back to the Mikado building until you're feeling better. Leave this one to us."

"Fine."

The air-carrier came for us in a bit. Dante and Mercer were able to get on without too much difficulty, but Roxas needed me to help him onto it. Chris and Leon boarded after us, and a signal from the former gave the pilot clearance to take off. The air-carrier rose vertically into the sky, taking us away from the devastation the city held.

I allowed myself to close my eyes. Sure, I'd be going back to the infirmary with the very sarcastic doctor, but I would be safe. I'd found my partner now too, so I didn't have to fear the Noise like before. I looked to the monster as we flew off, wondering if we'd be able to stop that thing. I still had no idea how the Noise had escaped into the real world, but I had a feeling that Wesker could do more than just teleport. Could we really stop that thing?

I could only pray.


	5. Chapter 5

**Episode 5**

That…was that. We'd succeeded but failed at the same time. We'd found my partner, but we'd unleashed that thing onto the world, right into the hands of a freak who could direct it to cause massive devastation. That is—and this is my current solace—if he were able to leave the city. It went berserk if he went too far, and we had to step back to gain control again. The last I saw of the two was Wesker retreating back into the fog of the Scramble Crossing.

Leon and Chris filled me on about Albert Wesker. Apparently he'd been a scientist at Gentek, before they became nervous about his work. So they let him go, and the Umbrella Corporation picked him up. Apparently he continued work on his own version of what later became the "Black-light" virus that my partner was infected with. He was apparently the one who released the virus that had killed Shibuya in the first place, attacking the former BlackWatch R&D center by himself; he released the "Red-light" virus into the city. Make sense?

No? Good, that means you're about as confused as I am…sigh. Apparently my partner's…you know what? My partner can shape-shift and eat people, I have pins that let me activate psychic powers, and we're both playing the Reaper's game in a zombie-apocalypse suburb of Tokyo, Japan. I DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE WHY RIGHT NOW.

We got back, we were immediately rushed to the infirmary, and Dr. Cox (I'm still laughing at his name) kept making sarcastic quips as we filed in, ending with me.

"You're back in here, princess?" He asked, picking up a clipboard and filling out our information. I kind of felt sorry for him, since it seemed like he was the only doctor on staff. Then again, I hadn't really seen all that many people in here, period. A handful of interns, a bunch of soldiers, and a few directors and that was it. I guess it made sense, since if a regular soldier went down in the infected zone they probably wouldn't be coming back.

Mercer was mostly uncooperative, insisting that he was okay. Dante had a similar attitude, but he still seemed like he needed a rest before he went back to work. Roxas was out, and I was still borderline hysterical. There was a knock at the door, and Dr. Cox told him curtly to come in.

It was Mitsuo Yamaki, and he had an order straight from Mr. Mikado. Dr. Cox protested, declaring that none of us were in shape, but Mercer insisted that he was, and that I was mostly fine too. I tried to say that I needed a break, but Yamaki wouldn't have any of that. He asked the two of us to come with him, and I politely…agreed.

We followed him up to the very top floor, where the elevator let us out into an expansive, yellow-themed room, almost big enough to be a ballroom. It was a classy room, unlike every other room in the building. There was a window on the far wall, with a clear view of the red city in the background. It was starting to get dark. I was truly surprised by the elegance, especially when Mr. Mikado came out to greet us.

He had long blonde hair framing his face and reaching his back. His eyes were piercing, and he wore a long violet robe over black coveralls. He had a lady on one arm, a very Asian-looking woman with shorter black hair. I was a little surprised about her at first, and then I remembered that I was actually in Japan, and that just everyone I had met since I woke up was either from the western world, or had very international looks.

"Thank you for escorting them here, Mitsuo." Mr. Mikado said, smiling encouragement.

"Sir." Yamaki nodded his head, standing up straighter with his acknowledgement.

"My name is Dauragon C. Mikado," Mr. Mikado says, and I can't help but smiling at him. He had this irresistible charm about him; I'm not sure what it was, "I inherited it from my adoptive father years ago. I've led the company as President ever since. When I saw the ruckus going on in Shibuya, I figured that I might as well lend my massive corporations wealth and power to the effort, and the government has aided me in doing so. I've vowed to see this virus eradicated, and I won't stop until we have it wiped out completely."

"So what does that have to do with us? " Mercer said, folding his arms. Apparently, he hadn't unwillingly succumbed to Dauragon's charm. He seemed downright skeptical of the story we'd just been told.

"Ah yes, Alex J. Mercer, codenamed Zeus. I know about you." Dauragon laughs lightly, "Couldn't hold your own in Manhattan, could you?" Mercer looks at him angrily, and I prepare to use my anarchy pin, before I remember that we're just outside of Shibuya—my pins don't work here. Mercer calmed himself, and glared.

"Yeah, I didn't expect Heller to be as resilient as that. I suppose he's still giving your troops hell, isn't he?"

"That's inconsequential," Dauragon dismisses their argument before it goes further, and proceeds to business. I can see that relations between my team and the heads of this group aren't going to be peachy. Oh well, "what matters is that you've made a difference so far in this city."

"I…what?" Mercer ran across the room and looked out the window, "I was just trying to survive."

"Don't be ashamed of what you've done, it's a good thing. You might be able to make even more of a difference." Dauragon points into the city and you can just barely see the head of the monster, even from this distance, "That thing will be your next target. I have faith that you two can remove it. It'll be a good test of the true extent of your powers."

Fat chance of that, not with Albert Wesker riding on the thing's back. Maybe if we didn't have to worry about him, we'd stand a better chance. But not five hours ago he'd schooled all four of us. I didn't see how we'd be able to take them _both_ out. Actually, maybe…maybe if we confronted Wesker on the creature's back, we'd be able to knock him off, and finish the creature off from there. Yamaki spoke up suddenly,

"Sir, I don't mean to intrude, but could we not simply use Juggernaut here? My machine is ready to go; it would be able to easily remove all obstacles in our way."

"I'm sorry Mitsuo, but such a powerful machine, I do believe it needs further testing before I'm willing to implement it." Dauragon replied apologetically.

"Yes, sir." Yamaki became silent again. Dauragon turned to us, and smiled broadly.

"If it would not be too much, could you two please remove that _thing_ from the skyline for me?"

I saluted, "Yes, sir." I had formed a plan, but I could only hope that Dante and Roxas would be able to go along with it. Suddenly, a manly voice behind me speaks up,

"I would like to assist in this operation, if that is at all possible." I look over my shoulder, and of all people to see, the man-in-black from my stay in the infirmary is strutting into the room. The automatic doors on the elevator close behind him, and I see that his shoulder is completely healed, although his clothes are not.

"Agent Westley, if you want to join this operation, the best I could do would be to assign you to command operations." Dauragon says, putting a hand to his face.

"That is certainly fine with me, when are we to be dispatched?" Westley asks, looking off to the skyline.

"This entire operation will be launched at midnight tonight, you should all get ready."

"As you wish." Westley turned and left the room. He really had no respect for command here, I wondered why that was? I hoped Mercer didn't get any ideas from him; we'd gotten into enough trouble trying to find him in Shibuya.

"You're all dismissed," Dauragon says calmly, "Mitsuo, if you could please escort them to their living quarters."

"Yes, sir."

Mercer leapt from the air-carrier onto a nearby rooftop as soon as we were in the city limits. I was on his back, holding on for dear life. He hits the roof, and I hold on tightly even as the roof cracks at his feet. My arms cry out in pain, but I have to put my all into this mission. Mercer leaps to the next roof, landing with less force, and repeating until we're almost downtown.

"Where are they?" He asks me when we get closer. He drops me off on a roof so I can call the base. Westley answers and a few Hunters join us on the rooftop, "I got you." Mercer growls, morphing one of his arms into a giant blade, as he attacks the Hunters.

"What seems to be your problem?" Westley's voice came through the walkie-talkie I'd gotten before we left. I hit the button on the side and practically shouted my question at him.

"Where are they?" I ask, looking over to the scramble crossing. We can see it from where we are, and there's no giant monster sticking out of the mist. It's like they vanished, "They're not here."

"I'll see what I can do," Westley's voice comes back through, "Yamaki!"

I hide behind Mercer as he cleaves through Hunter after Hunter, until they stop coming, and he morphs his arm back to normal. He stands up straight, and looks around, scanning the horizon for the monster but seeing nothing.

Suddenly, a nearby water tower explodes, and four Hunters burst from it. Without thinking, I pull the red pin from my pocket and direct a wave of fire at the incoming infected. It hits the first one, stunning him, but they press on through it. I notice a toppled building out of the corner of my eye, and an idea hits me. I'm so stupid, "Let's follow the rubble!"

"There's rubble everywhere!" Mercer replies, catching a Hunter in mid-air with his blade arm.

"The buildings! The giant bat-monster is too big to go down the street without knocking one or two of them over!"

"That's..." Mercer's arms turn into giant clubs, and he knocks both Hunters off of the roof before they revert back to normal. He turns to me, thinking about it, "An idea worth pursuing."

He picks me up and puts me on his back, and we start running through the city, jumping from toppled building to toppled building in search of the skyscraper-sized behemoth. It was one of the most frightening experiences ever, moving hundreds of feet through the air with the piggyback ride from hell. I'm surprised I was able to hold on actually. And it only got more terrifying when we started to hear the creature's sorrowful wailing.

Mercer runs along the side of one of the buildings, and suddenly leaps across the street to the other side as one of the creature's arms crashes into the building we were on. I hear Wesker's voice roar out from atop the monster's head,

"You worms! Prepare to meet the dirt!"

"We need to get up there quick!" I shout, and Wesker teleports to where we are. He grabs Mercer by the collar, floating in mid-air, and throws the two of us down. While we're falling, I pull out my anarchy pin, and chains shoot out from adjacent buildings to form an angled web below us, breaking my fall. Mercer managed to get a grip on the chains and leaps up into a counter-attack.

The energy expelled to create the chains burns at me, and I roll down the web until I'm lying on my back on the city street, staring up at the fight above me. Little tiny creature things approach me, but chains shoot down from above—as if by their own will—to protect me from them.

Mercer launches himself at Wesker, slashing with his blade. Wesker vanishes as Mercer flies through the spot he'd been in. He reappears next to Mercer, slamming my partner onto the nearest rooftop, and then they're out of my sight. I close my eyes, and reach into my pocket for the soda pin. It heals me, and I need my energy back.

My hand touches the pin, and I feel my health restored, enough for me to stand again. I look up and see that Mercer must also feel the effects of my pin, as Wesker goes flying off of the rooftop, breaking through my chain web (the web began turning back into dust as I got my energy back) and into the street. He'd fallen hard enough to leave a crater. He's back on his feet and running at me.

I duck, and cover my head, reaching for my red pin. He stops his attack, and chuckles, "Do I frighten you?" He says, with a pause that causes me to look up.

Big mistake.

He punches me hard enough to lift me into the air, then follows up with a punch that knocks me backwards into the nearest building. He would've probably killed me right there, but Mercer dropped down in his armored form, taking the last hit. He landed next to me, slumped over.

"I'm surprised at your tenacity, but your time is over!" Wesker removes his glasses, and I see his red eyes. He gains a blue aura, and prepares to attack us, but is suddenly blown back by a pulse of light.

"The once-noble Albert Wesker," Roxas says, flying in from above and striking Wesker several times with his two keyblades, "You gave up everything for mere power!"

Wesker caught the keyblades, and shoved Roxas back, replying, "Is it really so bad to give up one's soul, in return for the power of a god?"

Dante's voice from above, "What god is there to compare your power to? I've seen many demons in my time but you, you truly take the cake." I imagine Dante smirks as he says this last part, mocking Wesker, "You don't look so mighty from where I stand."

Roxas distracts Wesker, "Sorry bout dropping in unannounced guys," he runs forwards, striking with his keys and directing many bolts of light to crash around Wesker, pinning him in place. Dante leaps from above, slashing with his sword and striking Wesker directly, causing blood to fly into the air. Wesker staggers back from the surprise hit.

"We just had to crash this party," Dante finishes, swapping his sword for his pistols. Roxas redirects the light into Dante, who glows with an unearthly aura. He spins his pistols in his hand and points them at Wesker, firing two concentrated blasts of energy, "JACKPOT!"

The blast strikes Wesker, who falls to his knees, "Is that all that you have?"

"You're over!" Roxas shouts at him, as if begging him to just give up already. Wesker refuses, and through force of will stands up again.

"Over? I'm just getting started!" Wesker shouts, and a wave of energy emanates from him, knocking everyone backwards. He begins to cackle madly as he loses his grip, and floats up into the air. I grit my teeth, we just need to push him a little farther.

I feel strange suddenly, and find an extra pin in my pocket. I never asked later, but the best guess I have is that Kaworu or the Gate brought it to me. Either way, I was about to unleash a world of hurt on Wesker.

"Alex, with me!" I cry, raising the pin overhead and activating its psyche. Alex joins me, and he seems to innately understand the power of the pin, just as I do. This is a special pin, needing _two _people to combine their power. Two people to sync up with each other.

"Finishing move!" He cries out.

"Spiral! Drill! BREAKER!" I shout, and Mercer launches me forward as the harmonizer pin transforms into a giant drill. I'm propelled forward by Mercer's and mine power combined, and my drill expands before it collides with Wesker. He gets knocked back, and I have a second to look up at the giant monster, "Launch me!" I shout, and Mercer redirects his power, throwing me at the giant creature. I feel our energy erupt then, colliding with the monster.

It roars and cries in pain, and I gently glide back to the group with the rest of my power, smiling. That must have looked so cool! And now Wesker _and_ the monster are down! I look at the black-coat wearing man.

"It can't be…" Wesker says, turning into dust, "over…." He raises a hand to his creature, and a beam of energy shoots from his palm, "if this is to be my end, I shall take you four with me!"

The creature stops crying, and regains its balance again, just as Wesker turns completely to dust. It cries out in rage, and a similar beam of energy erupts from its mouth, burning the ground towards us. We all hop out of the way as empty cars and street-lights are incinerated.

"What just happened?" Roxas shouts, the question, pulling his keys out of thin air.

My partner looks at the monster, and to the ground where Wesker's ashes were. I could practically see the gears in his head whirring, "It seems that Wesker has given the last of his life, power, what-have-you to restore the health of his monster."

"Is that even possible?" I ask incredulously.

"Look in front of you," Dante retorts, pounding one of his fists into the other palm, "That thing's huge, but I think we can take it out."


	6. Chapter 6

**Episode 6**

We stared up at the monster, getting ready to form a battle plan, but my radio squawked out of nowhere. I pulled it off my belt and held it up for everyone to hear. It was Westley's voice, issuing an urgent command to us.

"Stand down guys! We're calling in a hit from Rogue Squadron," He told us, "And you're in the blast zone!"

"Rogue Squadron?" I asked, before getting carried away by Mercer. Dante and Roxas were running too, turning down an alley and cutting down any vile thing that stood in our way. Westley had said that they were calling in a hit, what exactly did that mean? I asked Roxas for an explanation and he shrugged.

Suddenly, I heard a loud _whoosh_ behind me, and turning around I saw a missile fly in from down the street, exploding against the creature's chest. The blast was spectacularly bright; I was still seeing lights even as Mercer dragged me to the next street. Dante took the walkie-talkie from my hand, and hit the button to talk,

"Westley, can you patch me through to Rogue Squadron?" He asked, and Westley replied in the affirmative. A woman's voice came through on the other end of the line.

"This is Kallen Kozuki, what do you need?" she asked, and I could faintly hear more missiles launched in the background.

"I want a situation report," Dante asked, "since when were the Black Knights willing to help us? I thought you guys were holding to yourselves, and suddenly Zero lets us send in their famous Rogue Squadron for a hit?"

Roxas explained to me then, that the Black Knights were a terrorist organization operating in Japan, trying to break free of their Britannian oppression. Except that they labeled it as Area 11—a designation I found to be strange. I had no memory of this Britannia, no memory of the areas. And yet, I remembered living in Chicago, a city in Britannia.

Rogue Squadron was an elite squadron of ace pilots in service of the Black Knights. They'd bombed the area many times before, but when the virus broke out, they pulled out. It was speculated that they _might_ have had some connection to the virus breaking out, but their leader—an enigmatic man known only as Zero—fervently denied any involvement, and pulled his forces back into the Chinese Federation.

Another man's voice broke through on the walkie-talkie, "This creature is something that a few fighter pilots might be able to handle. So Zero said we could be dispatched, and we contacted your team." It made sense, since I don't think a few fighter pilots could be of much use to combatting the infection.

"Pilots, what is the status of the target?" Yamaki's voice came through on the walkie-talkie, and we were left helpless, listening to the confrontation, "And your fighters as well." I hear him click his lighter several times as the fighters moved in to take more shots.

The man's voice comes through again, "All shots connected, the target is going down!"

I hear the creature's wails of pain from the next street over, and I imagine the black jets dashing by, missiles and bombs dropping from them to leave craters on the creature. I imagine the creature falling against a building, toppling it, flailing with death. Could it be over finally, this first nightmare?

Obviously, not.

"Awwww, hell naw!" I hear one of the pilots say, "That thing's still alive!" and then a few minutes later, the same pilot, "I'm hit! I'm eject—" We hear an explosion, but we're unsure if he made it.

"Hiller!" I hear the other man's voice cry out, briefly before he calms down, "Alex, Kallen, Heero, form back up."

"I have two boxes left!" Alex or Heero says, I don't know which but it's definitely not Kallen. It's a younger male voice, although I can tell he's probably about as experienced as me.

"Don't do it!" Their leader tells them, "Form back up! If we attack it, we'll be at risk of getting knocked down."

Westley's voice joins then, "listen to him and return to base," I hear him sigh in frustration, "the missiles are having little effect, your lives are not worth it."

"Understood, forming up now…" Alex/Heero says dejectedly, and I hear the jets all fly back away.

"Guys, looks like it's down to you," Westley says to us, "see what you can do." And then just before he cuts transmission, I hear him say to Yamaki, "No, we need clearance to use Juggernaut."

We aren't listening anymore though. That monster's all that's standing between me and my next nap; it won't be there for long! We take off running back through the alley, Mercer up the wall as Dante and Roxas draw their weapons. I reach into my pockets for the pins I'll need and quickly affix the soda pin to my chest.

I round the corner, slashing immediately with my drill pin. It cuts across the creature's spindly legs, leaving a red line, but doing nothing more than further irritating it. I see black marks all over the creature's body, marks from where Rogue Squadron's missiles had hit it. It was limping slightly—even damaged it had the strength to overwhelm all four of us. Mercer runs up the nearest building, and glides onto the creature's back. Dante and Roxas, to their credit, try the same thing but ultimately fail. They both fall back to the ground, regaining their footing as a storm of Scuttles rains down on us. A man's voice cries out in pain, and I realize that the fallen pilot is nearby.

I leave the Scuttles to the rest of my team as I search the nearby wreckage for the man. I hear his voice, but I can't see him. Then I facepalm, and scan the area for noise. Looking around, I see a few white noises, but nothing—except a dash of red noise underneath an awning in the creature's wake. He must be there!

I suddenly feel cold, and sense a more powerful noise behind me. I turn around to see a black sigil rushing towards me. I close my scan as soon as I can, hoping that the noise won't be able to get me if I do that. It doesn't, and I sigh relief, returning my efforts to finding the man.

Scuttles surround him, nipping at him with their teeth. Gritting mine, I activate my anarchy pin, aiming the chains to pierce the Scuttles. The pin's psyche goes off, and I feel the wind get knocked out of me. Three days and I'm already getting used to the drawbacks. It works mostly, chains shooting up from the ground to form a giant spike in the sky. They get most of them before turning to dust, but I've already caught my breath and drawn my red pin.

"I don't have time for you guys," I shout, activating this pin's psyche and running at them, "RED RAIN OF PAIN!" I cry, slashing at them with my burning hand. It sears through their chitin exoskeleton, leaving a red stain on their shell.

"Who's there?" The man cries out, struggling to push his way up through the rubble.

"Don't struggle too much," I tell him, trying to assess the situation. He's laying underneath parts of the building above. He's strapped into a pilot's seat, and the ruins of his plane are strewn about on the ground. There's a wing embedded in the building above him, I really hope that stays up there, "I'll call for help for you. Don't worry; we'll get you out of here."

I meet his eyes, and the look he gives me worries me. He's a younger black man, with short black hair, wearing a flight jacket that's covered in blood, "I don't think I'm gonna make it," He tells me. I shake my head—I can't just sit around and let him die!

"You'll make it. We'll all make it out of here." I pull my walkie-talkie off my belt and prepare to call base, but they're already ahead of me.

"Guys, get out of there!" Westley tells me, urgently. I look back down the street, at the creature and the specks that are my allies. What the hell is going on?

"Why? What happened?" I hit the button and ask him.

"Yamaki just got authorization to activate Juggernaut!" Westley shouts back, "He's aiming it at the creature, get out of there." I hear a roaring noise in the distance, and hit the button to get in touch with base,

"I don't think we're able to…" The golden beam flies over my head then.

Disasters always seem to be in slow motion, especially when you're watching them. Juggernaut turns out to be a laser cannon, fired into the sky, and deflected off of an air-carrier with a mirror on the bottom. The air-carrier deflects the beam into the target. It roars down into the creature, and I hear the monster's cries. I can hear ever point of pain the creature feels, and I feel it too, knowing that my allies are being incinerated. I fall to my knees, why? Why did this happen? I stare at the ground, the smell of ozone filling my nostrils.

Yamaki's voice comes over the speakers then, "What's the status on the creature?"

A roar ahead of me, and I look up. No, damn, way!

"No, I don't believe it!" I shout, and then hit the button on my walkie-talkie, "It's still up an moving!" It's severely wounded, but it's still going. Its entire body seems to be covered in a massive burn, but it's still alive. It roars up to the sky, and trashes a building across the street from us.

Can anything stop this creature?

I can't worry about that right now. I need to check my friend's, had to make sure they're there…and not just piles of ash. I called for an air-carrier, because at least the black pilot would be making it out of here. I helped him out of the seat, and had him hold onto my back. I carried him to the crater where the beam had struck.

"Alex! Roxas!" I shouted, but heard no replies, "Dante!"

Dante was the first one back on his feet. His coat was gone, and so were a lot of his pants, but he was still alive, "You think that could take me down?" He coughed, spitting out blood, "Just who the hell do you think I am?"

I pulled out my soda pop pin and held it towards Dante, but he shook his head, "Why not?"

"I can't use pins," He told me then, "I don't have enough imagination to use psyches. Roxas is the one who uses pins on our team."

I look down then, "Do you know if he…" Dante shook his head, looking away from me, and a sad expression on his face, "Roxas..."

"Players can only survive 7 minutes without their partner." He told me, and I knew that he himself was facing certain erasure.

"I'm sorry, man." Hiller said from my back. I clutched the soda pop pin in my hand, and it started to glow. But I didn't realize it at first, until the light reflected off of Dante's bare chest.

I opened my fist and saw that the soda pop decal on the pin had been replaced by a six-pack…but what could that mean? Only one way to find out, I thought as I pointed the pin at Dante. I activated its psyche, and a green light flashed onto Dante, illuminating his entire body. Before my eyes, his various cuts and scrapes healed. A green light flashed up into the sky on the other side of the crater, and Roxas stood up, revitalized.

"Ow…" He said, "What was that?"

I would've been happy then, but the creature returned its attention to us, roaring. Dante and Roxas weakly tried to draw their weapons, but they were in no condition to fight. And with Mr. Hiller on my back, I couldn't' fight as well either.

Salvation came out of nowhere, and yet it was vaguely familiar. The creature roared and attacked us, but something stopped it. A golden girl had landed in front of us, and blocked the creature with some blue force-field. The creature's teeth bounced off and it recoiled. Another robot, the same blue one I'd seen two days ago, flew in from above, slashing at the creature with a giant violet sword. The girl in the golden suit launched an energy beam into the creature, pushing it back further.

"We'll take it from here, guys!" She told us, "Get back, stay safe, and get out if you can!"

A blue bubble robot also flew in from above, shooting lasers at the creature. When all three robots were close enough, it said in a robotic monotone, "Initiate Sym-Bionic Titan." There were bright lights, and the three robots merged into one giant robot.

Before me stood a several story tall bubble robot, that looked similar to a giant Spartan with clear armor. It had glowing yellow eyes, and you could see the mechanics below its armor. It began to fight the creature, and compared to us, _it was winning. _

An air-carrier came then to pick us up, and we all rushed in without a second's hesitation. We were about to take off, except that I realized at the last second that mercer was nowhere to be seen. Realizing that he must have been vaporized by the beam, I looked down sadly, and we left.

I'd have a nice break in the Mikado building—but things were about to get _very_ serious in Shibuya.


End file.
